Muscat School Chess League to begin on Feb 28

MUSCAT: The French School of Muscat together in association with the International Chess Academy of Oman will organise the first Muscat School Chess Champion’s League 2018 for players under 14 years old. The competition will begin on February 28 at the French School premises at Muscat Heights. The league will be organised in two stages: February 28 (qualifications to select the top four teams) and March 14 (semifinals and finals).

Invitations have been sent to 15 International Schools of Muscat to participate in the first edition of the tournament, the like of which has never been done before in Oman.

Each school will be selecting their four best players (U-14) to form the team that will represent them in the competition. The tournament will follow the Swiss system and rules of the International Chess Federation (Fide). Ameer Abdullah al Raisi, President of the International Chess Academy of Oman, said: “It is very nice to see a professional platform emerging where kids can compete against each other as per the international standards. The International Chess Academy of Oman will provide all the material needed — wooden boards, digital chess clocks, international arbiters and live broadcast of the results. The team has been organising many events in the past five years including hosting Garry Kasparov (2014) and Vishy Anand (2016). We would like to thank the Ministry of Education for their support and for what they have been doing to promote the royal game in the four corners of the Sultanate.”

Yves Martel, Principal of the French School of Muscat, said: “It’s an honour for our school to host the first edition of the Muscat Chess School Champion’s League. The game of chess is a wonderful tool to develop the analytical skills, creativity, calculation, focus of all students and what better way than a competition to push themselves to the utmost while having fun!”